The Bit Bucket

A Transgender Paranormal Romantasy

From the Paranormal Visitor Universe

Chapter 19: The Choice

By Sasha Zarya Nexus

How will Meda's forces and allies react to the onslaught and war brought on by the feud between sisters Andromeda and Morgana?
Will the abrupt change in tactics from that of the War Council be sufficient to meet Morgana in Aislyn's College for the Blessed?

Copyright 2025 by Sasha Zarya Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

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The war room beneath Aislinn's College hummed with desperate energy as the final preparations for battle reached their crescendo. Ancient defensive systems blazed with power, their crystalline matrices straining under the weight of cosmic forces gathering beyond the college's protective barriers. Meda stood at the center of it all, the Stellar Prism pulsing in her hands like a captured star, while around her the greatest magical minds in the universe prepared for what might be their last stand.

The moment of ultimate decision came not with fanfare, but with a whisper of understanding that cut through the chaos like a blade of pure light. As Morgana's forces pressed against the college's defenses and the assembled defenders readied their weapons, Meda felt Andromeda's memories crystallize into perfect clarity.

She saw the ancient battle that had torn the magical realms apart—not as history, but as lived experience. She felt the rage that had consumed Andromeda when Morgana first fell to darkness, the righteous fury that had demanded justice, punishment, the complete destruction of everything her sister had become. She remembered the moment when love had been sacrificed on the altar of cosmic balance, when the bonds of sisterhood had been severed in the name of protecting the universe.

"No," Meda said quietly, her voice carrying such authority that every conversation in the war room ceased. "This ends differently."

Eva moved to her sister's side, the Empathic Crown glowing softly on her brow as she felt the shift in Meda's emotional landscape. "You've made your choice."

"We've made our choice," Meda corrected, taking Eva's hand. "The same choice we made in the Bit Bucket when we chose transformation over destruction, love over fear. We're not going to repeat Andromeda's mistake."

Wanda approached them, her artifact fragment resonating with their combined power. "The assembled forces expect us to lead them into battle," she said carefully. "They've prepared for war, not... whatever this is."

"Then we'll have to show them a different way," Meda replied, her oceanic blue eyes blazing with determination. "Morgana isn't our enemy—she's our sister. And sisters don't abandon each other, no matter how far they've fallen into darkness."

The revelation came through the Stellar Prism, its crystalline structure serving as a conduit for truths that had been buried for millennia. As Meda channeled her power through the artifact, images flooded the war room—not just memories, but understanding. The assembled defenders watched in stunned silence as the true story of Andromeda and Morgana's relationship unfolded before them.

They saw two young sorceresses, twins in power if not in blood, working together to heal a wounded universe. They witnessed the moment when their partnership began to fracture—not through evil or corruption, but through fear and misunderstanding. Morgana had always been drawn to shadow magic, to the healing that could only come through embracing darkness and transforming it. But Andromeda, in her certainty that light was the only path to salvation, had tried to "fix" her sister, to force her into a mold that denied half of her nature.

"She wasn't corrupted by darkness," Meda said, her voice thick with the weight of ancient regret. "She was driven to it by our refusal to accept that shadow and light are meant to work together. Every time we tried to heal her with pure light, we pushed her deeper into the darkness she thought was her only refuge."

Professor Ingris stepped forward from the assembled faculty, her historian's mind grappling with the implications. "You're saying that Morgana's fall was caused by the very attempts to save her?"

"I'm saying that love without understanding isn't love at all," Meda replied. "It's control. And control, no matter how well-intentioned, always breeds resentment."

Eva's empathic abilities reached out through the college's reality matrix, touching the edges of Morgana's consciousness as it pressed against their defenses. "She's in so much pain," Eva whispered, tears streaming down her face. "Centuries of isolation, of believing that she's fundamentally wrong, fundamentally evil. She's convinced herself that darkness is all she deserves."

The transformation began not with grand gestures or cosmic displays of power, but with a simple act of vulnerability. Meda set down the Stellar Prism and walked to the war room's central display, where Morgana's approaching forces were shown as points of malevolent light pressing against the college's barriers.

"Lower the defenses," she said quietly.

The command sent shockwaves through the assembled defenders. Dean Bronwen stepped forward, her expertise in magical defense making her voice sharp with alarm. "Nada, if we lower the barriers now, Morgana's forces will overrun the college in minutes. Everyone here will be corrupted or destroyed."

"Not if we meet her with love instead of fear," Meda replied, her voice steady despite the magnitude of what she was proposing. "Not if we show her that she doesn't have to be alone anymore."

Aislinn moved through the crowd of defenders, her ancient wisdom finally understanding what Meda intended. "You're going to attempt a healing on a cosmic scale," she said, wonder and terror warring in her voice. "You're going to try to transform Morgana's darkness not by destroying it, but by embracing it."

"We're going to prove that love really can conquer hate," Eva added, her hand finding Meda's. "That understanding can overcome centuries of pain and isolation."

The assembled defenders looked between each other, fear and hope battling in their expressions. They had prepared for war, trained for battle, gathered artifacts and allies to face the greatest threat the magical realms had ever known. Now they were being asked to trust in something far more dangerous than any weapon—they were being asked to trust in love.

The decision to lower the college's defenses was not made lightly or quickly. Faculty members argued, students voiced their fears, and visiting allies questioned the wisdom of such a radical departure from conventional magical warfare. But as Meda and Eva stood together, their combined power creating a harmony that resonated through the very foundations of the college, something shifted in the collective consciousness of the defenders.

Dean Molli Rose was the first to step forward, her expertise in child welfare making her uniquely qualified to understand the healing Meda proposed. "In my work with traumatized students," she said quietly, "I've learned that you can't heal someone by fighting their darkness. You have to love them enough to sit with them in it, to show them that they're not alone."

One by one, other defenders began to voice their support. Professor Ingris spoke of historical precedents where understanding had succeeded where force had failed. Dean Bronwen, despite her reservations, acknowledged that their conventional defenses had never been designed to face a threat of Morgana's magnitude. Even some of the visiting allies, beings who had traveled across cosmic distances to fight in this war, began to see the wisdom in Meda's approach.

"The power of compassion," Wanda said, her artifact fragment blazing with new understanding, "isn't just about feeling sorry for someone. It's about seeing them clearly—all of them, light and shadow together—and choosing to love them anyway."

The vote, when it came, was not unanimous. Some defenders chose to evacuate rather than participate in what they saw as cosmic suicide. Others remained but prepared for the worst, ready to fight if Meda's gamble failed. But enough stayed, enough believed, that when the college's barriers finally lowered, they did so with the backing of a united community committed to proving that love was stronger than fear.

As the protective barriers dissolved and Morgana's forces swept toward the college like a tide of living shadow, Meda felt her purpose crystallize with perfect clarity. She was no longer Andromeda seeking to impose her will on a chaotic universe. She was no longer Fred struggling to find his place in a world that didn't understand him. She was Meda—a bridge between light and darkness, a living proof that transformation was possible, that love could transcend any boundary.

The Stellar Prism rose from where she had set it down, floating in the air between her and Eva as their combined power flowed through it. But instead of the harsh light of judgment that Andromeda had once wielded, the artifact now blazed with something softer, more complex—light that embraced shadow, understanding that welcomed pain, love that asked nothing in return.

"We're not here to defeat Morgana," Meda announced to the assembled defenders as the dark sorceress's presence filled the college like a storm front. "We're here to welcome her home."

Eva's empathic abilities reached out through the college's reality matrix, weaving threads of connection and understanding that touched every consciousness present. "Remember," she said, her voice carrying to every corner of the institution, "we're not fighting an enemy. We're healing a sister."

The final moments before Morgana's arrival were spent not in last-minute tactical preparations, but in a collective act of spiritual readiness that transformed the war room into something resembling a temple. Students and faculty joined hands, their combined magical energies creating a web of connection that spanned the entire college. Artifacts hummed with harmonious power, their individual purposes subsumed into a greater whole.

Meda and Eva stood at the center of it all, their sisterly bond serving as the focal point for energies that spanned the spectrum from pure light to deepest shadow. The Stellar Prism floated between them, no longer a weapon but a lens through which love could be focused and amplified.

"Whatever happens," Meda said to the assembled defenders, "remember that we chose this path not because it was safe, but because it was right. We chose love over fear, understanding over judgment, healing over destruction."

"And if we fail," Eva added, her voice steady despite the cosmic forces gathering around them, "we fail together, as a family united by something stronger than magic—united by the choice to see the best in each other, even in our darkest moments."

The college trembled as Morgana's presence pressed against its reality matrix, no longer held back by protective barriers but welcomed by open hearts. The real test was about to begin—not a battle between good and evil, but a healing that would determine whether love truly could triumph over the deepest darkness.

As the ancient sorceress materialized in the war room, her form wreathed in shadows that seemed to devour light itself, Meda stepped forward with arms outstretched, ready to embrace the sister she had lost so long ago. The choice had been made, the purpose transformed, and now all that remained was to prove that some bonds are stronger than time, stronger than pain, stronger even than the cosmic forces that seek to tear the universe apart.

The healing was about to begin, and with it, the ultimate test of whether love really could conquer all.